School is finally settling down, or I'm used to the schedule now. Enjoy this chapter. Chapter 32 will be posted soon.
31. Lessons
She barely recognized the image the mirror displayed: a pale, almost sickly looking, being with aqua eyes that held no life in the orbs and a firm frown stared back at her, growing deeper when the face of this familiar stranger took in the whole appearance of this person. Ino couldn't do much to change her appearance—it's the consequence for long, sleepless nights, spending majority of her time indoors, and being too depressed for her liking. She didn't care much for a shower, or dressing in cute clothes, or make-up.
She was broken into tiny bits over the past few months, engaging in emotions of and events that she hoped she'd never experience and those bits were shattered in the matter of a couple weeks, slowly deteriorating into oblivion as each day passed. She isolated herself, keeping people at bay from entering her world. However—Ino turned sideways to reveal her bulging belly—the problem would disappear in an estimated two months. All her problems would disappear.
However, she ran her fingers up the curve of her stomach, up from her belly button and over the curve of her pregnant belly, earning a slight nudge from inside her. She smiled. Being a couple weeks from seven months meant that people didn't question whether she was obese or pregnant—it was apparent she carried a child. Also, it was somewhat…cute, her baby belly that is. If she could walk around with a paper bag over her ugly face and still be socially accepted, she would.
Taking one last glance at herself, she grabbed her house keys off her nightstand, shouted at Sakura, who was in the shower, that she was leaving, and left. The night before, Sakura insisted that she companied Ino, but Ino declined.
The adoption agency was on the other side of the village, in a civilian district. Walking that fifteen minute walk was near suicide for Ino, considering how far along she was in her pregnant and that she shouldn't be walking such distances in the first place, says her doctor. By the end of her little walk, her back and feet ached, and the child was fidgety, kicking and pushing hard against her insides, more specifically her bladder.
Ino pinched her legs together and walked into the small building. "Hello, I have been waiting for you!" a woman greeted as Ino waddled through the door. The lobby was cluttered with book shelves filled with books about psychological effects of adoption, the pros and cons of adoption, and there were books on pregnancy. "You must be Ino I presume."
"Yes."
"Well, come into my office and we'll talk."
Ino entered a smaller room which felt more open compared to the front room and the AC gently blew cool air into the room. Ino sunk into the cushioned chair and enjoyed the air blowing against her sweaty face. The other woman, the agent, fiddled around with her filing cabinets, pulling out files and scrapbooks. "My name is Takai Ruka," she said as she continued to dink around with her files. "I'll be your adoption agent from here on out. May I ask where the father is?"
Oh, I don't know. He's an S-ranked criminal, so he must be doing criminal things and the man that is supposedly the stand-in father is an asshole. "We're not together at the moment."
"I understand. It happens with young couples these days; it's a shame really."
"It's for the best."
Ruka placed a packet in front of Ino and handed her a pen. "Fill everything out so I can put you in the system, and afterwards, I can send you home with those scrapbooks, and once we've picked out the people you like, we can schedule appointments as soon as possible and form an adoption plan."
Ino scanned the form over, filling in the usual information such as name and address.
"You're a ninja, huh?"
"My occupation isn't the reason why I'm giving this child up for adoption." She watched puzzlement wash over the agent's face. Ruka leaned back in her chair, cleared her throat, and remained quiet until Ino completed the lengthy form.
Ruka flipped through the packet. "You didn't fill out any information about the baby?"
"I don't know anything about the baby."
Instead of prying like Ino expected her to do, she hummed and continued to flip through the pages. "Everything looks dandy," she sing-songed before she picked up a bin full of scrapbooks and placing it on her desk. "You can bring these home with you today and look over them. Um, do you need help carrying it? A woman as far along as you shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting."
Ino hoisted her body out of the seat and took hold of the handle, lifting it to judge just how difficult the walk back home will be with this thing. "I think I'll be fine. It's not that heavy. Thank you, though."
"Have a good day, Ino."
What the hell was Ino thinking when she decided to carry this thing by herself? She sat down on the park bench and swiped the sweat from her forehead. The first several minutes, she thought she'd be home in no time, but no, her shoulders had to start aching along with the ever present back and feet ache.
If she wasn't pregnant, she wouldn't have all the pains. If she wasn't pregnant, she wouldn't be carrying this bin back to her apartment.
"Ino, what are you doing?"
"Choji." She smiled as the plump young man seated next to her. Has he gotten skinnier?
"I haven't seen you since you left for Kumo. Damn, you really are pregnant." How awkward…Choji would be the one to point out the elephant in the room. Ino cleared her throat to interrupt the silence and smiled at her teammate. Choji grinned. "You're as big as me—maybe even bigger."
"You have a way with words, Choji."
"I mean…at least you won't be that way for long!"
"That makes me feel a little better," Ino deadpanned. "Do you want to do a favor for me?" she hinted, beckoning her chin towards the blue bin filled with scrapbooks. "Can you carry this for me?" Ino grabbed the edge of the bench and picked herself off the bench.
"Yeah, sure." He picked up the bin and for the first time, peered into the contents of it. "Scrapbooks? I didn't know you were into scrapbooking."
"Well…" Ino trailed, letting the conversation die into curious tension between the two friends.
"So, I was wondering about Shikamaru…" Ino inwardly groaned—the last person she wanted to talk about was Shikamaru. "Don't tell him, but I really hope the baby has your looks. We don't need another pineapple head running around the village."
Chuckling, she said, "Trust me; it'll look like me more than Shikamaru." There won't be a trace of pineapple traits or dark hair in this child. Just blonde hair and blue—possibly lavender, but such color has to be recessive—eyes with a brain of a genius and maybe a slight trace of homicidal murderer….Hopefully, the latter wasn't included.
"Is it a boy or girl?"
"I'm not sure."
"Oh, so you're keeping it a surprise?" Ino nodded. "Well, whatever it is, I'm going to be the best uncle ever. We'll have eating contests, and I'll teach it how to fit twenty rolls of sushi in its mouth at one time. I could teach it the Expansion jutsu!'
Ino laughed, a sound and feeling that felt uneasy in her chest but she played it off well and kept herself calm. "I don't think it'll want to be as big as an elephant by the time it's ten, but…Choji," she paused, eyeing the scrapbooks. "I'm giving it up for adoption. Maybe in the future you'll be able to be the best uncle ever, say ten, twenty more years into the future."
"Adoption?"
"I'm not ready to be a mother."
"Oh…" then silence. Peeking from the corner of her eye, Choji looked puzzled as he stared at her…or was that a glare? Ino refused to turn and face, refusing to see the confusion and possibly anger towards her decision. She didn't want to listen to a lecture about giving her child to adoption, but she knew Choji wasn't the man to lecture on a subject he was oblivious to. Suddenly, he hummed and patted Ino on the back, who wanted to jump out of arm's length, roll into fetal position and cry, but she remained at his side, allowing her teammate to rub her back. "I respect your decision. As long as you're happy, I'll be happy."
"You're sweet." For the first time, she wanted to cry in joy, happy tears.
"I hope we can hang out sometimes soon 'cause it's weird without you telling me I'm eating too much."
"I'll probably eat as much as you." Ino rubbed her stomach and grinned. "This thing is like a black hole; I can seriously eat anything."
The pale blue sky was cloudless that summer day, no cloud in sight whatsoever. What was the point of cloud gazing when there were no clouds? Shikamaru had nothing else to do but lie around and mope, like he did back in the Academy days. If he didn't quit smoking, he'd have a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth right now….
"All right, Son, you've been like this all day; what's going on?" His father, Shikaku, sat next to Shikamaru and stared at his son until Shikamaru focused his gaze on him. He smiled and poked his son in the stomach, which Shikamaru responded by lurching forward with a quiet oof! "Anything wrong?"
"Ino," he mumbled in response, leaning his face into his hand. "Troublesome woman."
"You're upset over a girl?"
Shikamaru's heart stopped for a moment. Did he tell his parents Ino was pregnant? "Well," he said, clearing his throat to stall the moment before his ultimate demise. His mother had to be listening to this conversation and when he confessed Ino is pregnant with his child, she'll come out screaming like a banshee and beat the snot out of him with a frying pan. "She's pregnant…with my child."
"You bastard! When the hell did this happen?"
"Um…"
"I actually don't want to know," Shikaku interrupted, waving his hand to stop his son from speaking. "So, what's the problem besides the fact that you impregnated my best friend's daughter? You want to apologize for getting her pregnant right?"
"Well, no, I—"
"Bastard, why would you not want to apologize?"
"Dad!"
Shikaku lifted a finger to hush Shikamaru from explaining himself. "What you need a sincere apology, something that says I'm-an-asshole-for-not-using-protection. You need flowers, chocolate and pretty diamonds rings—joking about that last one; you'd be so broke, you'd have to either sell your soul to the devil…or die during a mission."
"I'd rather die."
"Me too, but do you know what I did? I married the devil," he whispered. "Now, I'm stuck in I'm-screwed land forever."
"Your fault."
"And I don't regret any minute of it." Shikamaru wondered if his father noticed his wife stalk past the porch in a creepish manner, which was the reason why he said this. Most likely.
"I never knew Mom would be a sucker for diamond rings and flowers."
"It was the chocolate. She was having some kind of mental breakdown, went psycho for a whole week…and she crave a lot of chocolate. Anyway, what I'm telling you is that you need to go up to Ino and apologize for being a jackass then hand her the goodies."
"Dad, I'm not trying to apologize for getting her…pregnant," he said this in a whisper, almost embarrassed of the word pregnant. "I messed up. Also, you do realize Ino has the preference of a man? She'd rather eat flowers than put them in a case and stare at the pretty colors."
"Shikamaru, she works at a freaking flower shop. I'm pretty sure she likes the pretty colors."
"If she works at a flower shop, she'll just tease me about picking the wrong flowers or something. If I scoop up a pile of dirt and hand it to her, she'd be fine with it."
"Maybe this is the reason why you screwed up. You think of her as a teammate; you think she doesn't care what you do when in reality, she does case because she is a woman and women are very emotional creatures. Have you ever looked at her as a woman?"
"Well, yeah. I know she has the…and the, you know, plus the—"
"Stop it. You're making me feel awkward, Son."
"Sorry."
"We're off subject now. What did you do to piss her off? Her temper is just as bad as your mother's."
"Don't punch me or anything, okay?" Shikamaru begged as a blush grew across his cheeks in upright embarrassment. Shikaku sighed and waited for Shikamaru's explanation in silence, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited. "Temari and I—"
"This is why Ino's angry with you? You chose Temari over her?"
Did he read Shikamaru's mind or what? "Y-Yeah."
Shikaku sighed and gazed at the sky. "I can't be angry at you because I did the same thing when I was your age, not getting my teammates pregnant but…cheating, I guess. I know you've been with Temari for a while now, but Ino told you she carried your child, did you agree that you'd be in that child's life?" Shikamaru nodded. "You agreed to be there for the child, which means you're completely liable for what happens to Ino as well because she's still pregnant, so if she dies, the kid dies.
"You're a father now, Shikamaru. Maybe it hasn't hit you yet, but being a father means that the child's life is more important than yours. You will do anything to protect it. Until Ino gives birth, you need to think about your actions. Take care of Ino until then. When she gives birth, the kid is all you have to care about unless you still want to be with Ino…or if Ino still want to be with you. But in the end, she's your teammate, so why would you choose not be support her whether she wants you there or not? Does that make sense?"
"Somewhat." Everything confused Shikamaru, which was amazing considering he was renowned for being a genius. It seemed like this genius still had a lot to learn.
"Good talk, Son. I'm going to grab a beer and begin writing your obituary. When I tell your mother, you're forever screwed."
"So, the object is to find a family?"
"Yes, Naruto," Ino sighed, flipping through the pages of the first scrapbook in the stack. The couple in the picture was young, possibly a few years older than her. The woman had fiery scarlet hair that curled down to her waist and hid her face. Behind the red curtain, blue eyes shined, contrasting against the bright hair and pale skin. The husband was shorter than her, tan and muscular. Both sported the hitae-ite's on their foreheads and shinobi garb.
"Ino, are you sure you want to give him up?" Sakura asked as she flipped through a sea-green scrapbook that had painted, blue flowers on the covers.
"Him?"
"I'm convinced it's a boy. I had a dream about it."
"I'm not going to talk about the gender, and yes, I am sure I want to give him up. Don't pester me."
"What's Shikamaru going to say about it?"
"Shikamaru doesn't have anything to say about it."
Shikamaru hustled through the corridor, down the the Hokage's office. He didn't understand the emergency of this meeting but considering she sent ANBU to his house to tell him the Hokage requested to meet with him immediately, it had to be important.
He knocked once before he entered the office, without announcing himself. He dodged the dozen freshly sharpened pencils flying his way; the pencil holder crashed against the wall where his head was a second before.
"Lady Hokage," Shikamaru cried while dodging the miscellaneous objects flung in his direction. What did he do to piss off his superior? He met his deadlines, did all her paperwork, and even cleaned his room, what more did she want?
"I blame you, Nara!" Tsunade wailed as she took her chair and chucked it at him. "We're short one proctor and the exams are in two weeks!"
"How can we be short one proctor? I double checked that we had all proctors."
"The guy sent in a proposal that he be exempt from the exams because I mindlessly assigned him a mission that day."
"And you're blaming me for it?"
"Yes!"
"Lady Hokage, if you could stop chucking your office supplies at me, I could easily think of a solution to this problem. In fact I already have a solution." The objects finally stopped, giving Shikamaru a chance to sigh in relief.
"What do you have in mind? Chunin aren't qualified to be proctors, and most Jonin are either proctors already or on missions. ANBU won't take the job no matter how much I pay them—damn them and their pride."
"Just give me a couple days to figure it out. I have the perfect person in mind."
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